In/action

Last week I was eating dinner in a Los Angeles restaurant when a woman at the next table got something stuck in her throat and began to choke. 

I was ready to jump up and deliver the Heimlich Maneuver. But first I observed. Three members of the restaurant staff — a server, a host, and the guy who had just cleared our salad plates — were watching the situation and each other. They were a team and they were clearly poised to act.

The situation was covered by trained professionals. I relaxed.

The woman kept hacking. On one hand, that was great news; she was getting air. But then it kept going, and going, minute after minute.

At what point did this become a matter of utilitarianism (prioritizing the good of the many over the good of the few)? At what point could the woman’s friends have escorted her to the restroom? All of the customers seated on that patio paid good money to enjoy a meal at that restaurant. Why did everyone have to listen to her gag and wheeze, and laugh too loudly and gag again and make a big dramatic deal out of the experience long after it became clear she wasn’t in any danger? 

I grew up driving on Los Angeles freeways. We’re famous for our traffic. You can sit still on freeways for hours even when there’s no stall or accident. It’s a symptom of driving in a place where everyone wants to be. Over the years I have developed a two-part reaction to an incident in traffic. First, my heart goes out to the people who are having a terrible day. Maybe even their last day. When I pass the scene, I wish them and their loved ones well.

But that feeling is often followed by something else. Sometimes it is a critique of the obviously boneheaded move that caused the accident. Or a sudden desire to drag a person and their cell phone off to the shoulder and out of everyone’s way.

That may come across as callous. But before you rush to defend the choker or the distracted driver, let’s take a moment to consider how our society generally treats the most vulnerable among us. The elderly, the poor, the mentally ill, the immigrant. What do we do every day to help them? To see them? Do we give them the first moment of empathy? Are we ready to help if help is needed?

Millions of Americans live in crisis everyday. They usually don’t make a spectacle of themselves by choking or running a red light, but they sometimes show up in news coverage of hurricanes or fires, and they’re easy to find in schools, emergency rooms, homeless/unhoused encampments, fields, meat processing plants, etc. Often, they are the first people hurt when something bad happens, because they have the least protection.

In Open-Source Learning I talk about Civic Fitness as our ability to effectively participate and contribute to our social systems. It doesn’t take much to help a person in need. We can start by making eye contact and smiling. Sure, we can go big and give to an organization or volunteer on a project, but we can also do the little things, like pay someone’s parking meter or pick up a piece of litter and throw it away. Maybe no one but us will ever know it happened.

I’d like to know: How do you help the less fortunate members in your community? Drop me a line and tell me about it. I’m curious.

Curiosity is worth practicing. That’s how we get better at it. When it’s done particularly well, curiosity can be elevated to an art form. Curiosity makes life worth living. I am literally Curious AF. And now you can be too! Click HERE to unlock your free membership subscription. 

Here is a taste of what I’m reading, watching, and thinking about.

I’ve been a Kevin Kline fan since his brilliant turn as Otto “don’t call me stupid” West in A Fish Called Wanda won an Academy Award. So I was excited to see his name alongside director Alfonso Cuarón, Cate Blanchett and Sacha Baron Cohen in the new Apple series Disclaimer. From the BBC’s review: “In Alfonso Cuarón's most dazzling films, including Children of Men, he trusts his audience to follow his lead, however winding the narrative path. That approach shines through in Disclaimer, a twisting series that takes on the eternal yet timelier-than-ever subject of fiction v reality. Cate Blanchett stars in the juicy role of Catherine Ravenscroft, a famous investigative journalist who is anonymously sent a novel in which she is, unmistakably, a scandalous character. Disclaimer doesn't have anything new to say about how our imaginations fill in the blanks of reality, but Cuarón and Blanchett make the series an engrossing, intelligent romp.”

Like most of us, I am contemplating the role that AI is/can/should/shouldn’t be playing in our lives. Is it a powerful tool? Yes. Are we showing that we are increasingly incapable of resisting its influence in determining our mediated experience of the world? It’s hard to argue with the evidence. Because the internet and everything around it (search, social media, online culture, etc.) has evolved faster than our ability to conduct sound journalism or research, I’m interested in personal anecdotes that provide some insight. This just in from the Los Angeles Times, AI is so rampant now that even a second-grade project is a lesson in deepfakes: “My daughter’s second-grade teacher assigned what should have been a straightforward project: an oral presentation about her family’s country of origin with a poster that includes at least five images. But as my daughter searched online for pictures of the traditions, food and wildlife of Costa Rica, her research ran into an unexpected obstacle. Her results for three-toed sloths, the slow-moving and beloved tree dwellers that inhabit Costa Rica’s rainforest, turned up a slew of unbearably adorable pictures. Some seemed to smile for the camera as they hung from trees. Closer inspection showed they were too cute to be true. Many of the images that popped up were AI-generated. It turned an assignment about our family’s heritage into a lesson about what’s real on the internet.”

I produce a podcast called LIT AF, where I read through the classics like you’ve never heard them before. Each season of this podcast is an audiobook with a twist – I comment as I go, to give you the stories between the lines.

As we run up to Halloween, I've been reading and thinking about Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Viktor is tormented by the idea that his monster likely killed his little brother and a beloved, innocent woman was falsely accused, wrongly convicted, and executed because of the murder. In dark moments such as these, it's understandable that he wants to be alone and end his madness. But connecting with Elizabeth and the majesty of nature brings Viktor back to his senses... and wraps our last short episode before we dive deep into the belly of the Frankenstein beast. Join us for a journey to hurt and beyond.

Alejandro Escovedo’s album Echo Dancing. I learned about Alejandro while watching one of my favorite comedians buy records in one of my favorite record stores. Better late than never. This album got my attention because I occasionally read great books I’ve already read, just because I’ve changed since the last time and I subscribe to Hume’s idea that “you can never step in the same river twice.” But it never occurred to me that the books themselves changed, or that I might deconstruct and rewrite something that I wrote a long time ago. That’s what Alejandro did. From his website: "I was planning this record just prior to boarding a plane to Italy to record with [co-producers] Don Antonio and Nicola Peruch," says Escovedo. "My original idea was to record an album of new material. But then I changed my mind and thought that revisiting songs from my various albums would be more interesting. I always feel that a well-written song can withstand a lot of abuse. Turning a past song inside out leads to discovery of new ideas you might not have understood. The songs never seem to be complete. They are always evolving.” 

If quantum mechanics hasn’t profoundly shocked you, you haven’t understood it yet.

– Niels Bohr

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Know someone who is also Curious AF? Please share this edition with them!

David Preston

Educator & Author

​https://davidpreston.net​

Latest book: ACADEMY OF ONE

Header image: Hieronymus Brunschwig via the Historical Medical Library